Commercial and residential construction continues to be an important part of any country's economy. However, there are rising concerns about the environment which can have chilling effects on industrial growth. The main concern that could affect the construction industry is the increasing loss of forest resources. Increased demand for construction materials and space for development has resulted in the leveling of large forest areas throughout the world. Expanded use of such materials as concrete may mitigate this problem.
The construction industry has been moving toward the use of mass production techniques. Among these techniques are prefabricated walls, manufactured offsite and transported to the construction site for assembly and the manufacture of modular units, that is, the building of entire rooms or room assemblies in a factory environment, which are then transported to the building site and assembled. Walls represent one of the largest single cost elements of many construction projects. The use of less costly prefabricated walls is replacing more expensive, manual building of walls in place. The prefabricated walls are generally built in a factory and transported over the road to the construction site, but are sometimes fabricated at the site using equipment which can be moved from one project to another. Large numbers of prefabricated concrete walls are normally poured in a horizontal position. Once hardened, the walls are lifted or tilted to a vertical position. The disadvantages of horizontal casting include the need for large floor areas, high labor costs, and the need for large reinforcing bars.